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Robert Lax
Robert Lax (November 30, 1915 - September 26, 2000) was an American poet, known in particular for his association with famed 20th-century Trappist monk and writer, Thomas Merton. Life Lax was born in Olean, New York, to Sigmund and Rebecca Lax. Lax attended Columbia University, in New York City, where he studied with the poet and critic Mark Van Doren. As a student at Columbia , he worked on the college humor magazine, Jester, with a classmate who became a close lifetime friend, Thomas Merton (later the Trappist monk and author of many spiritual books). Others on the Jester staff were Edward Rice, founder of Jubilee magazine, to which all three men contributed in the 1950s and ¹60s, and Ad Reinhardt, the painter. A third friend of his youth, whose work sheds light on both Lax and Merton, was Ad Reinhardt. The correspondence of Lax and Merton, written in a kind of comic argot, was published in 1978. In his biography, The Seven Storey Mountain, Merton describes Lax at a meeting with other Jester staff: ³Taller than them all, and more serious, with a long face, like a horse, and a great mane of black hair on top of it, Bob Lax meditated on some incomprehensible woe.² Lax graduated in 1938. On leaving school, he worked for several mainstream magazines before he began his process of moving into a simple life. In 1940 and 1941 he worked at The New Yorker magazine and did volunteer work at Friendship House, a Catholic social ministry in New York City. In 1943 he was baptized into the Roman Catholic Church. He began teaching English at the University of North Carolina, where he also studied for, but did not complete, a Ph.D. in philosophy. In the late 1940's he wrote film reviews for Time magazine, then travelled to Hollywood, California, where he laboured as a scriptwriter at Samuel Goldwyn Studios.Arthur W. Biddle, Thomas Merton and Robert Lax: A friendship in letters, Thomas Merton Society. Web, Nov. 4, 2014. Lax wrote hundreds of poems and dozens of books in his long career, but never reached the level of recognition that some of his peers say he deserves. Jack Kerouac called Lax "one of the great original voices of our times ... a Pilgrim in search of beautiful innocence" Lax converted from Judiasm to Catholicism in 1943, five years after his friend Thomas Merton, and Rice was godfather to both men. In the 1940s, Lax worked on the staff of The New Yorker, was poetry editor of Time magazine, wrote screenplays in Hollywood, and taught at both the University of North Carolina and Connecticut College for Women. He traveled with the Cristiani Brothers circus in 1949, which enabled him to generate material for Circus of the Sun. He helped start Jubilee, a lay Catholic magazine, under its founder, Edward Rice, in 1952 and became its roving editor before moving to the Greek Islands in 1962. He lived the last 35 years of his life in the Greek islands, most recently on Patmos. Considered by some to be a self-exiled hermit, he nonetheless welcomed visitors to his home on the island, but did nothing to court publicity or expand his literary career or reputation. Lax moved back to Olean in 2000. He died in his hometown at age 84. Writing Lax attempted to embody a sense of bliss in his writing. Some of his poems, however, were whimsical: :"are you a visitor?" asked the dog, :"yes," i answered. :"only a visitor?" asked the dog. :"yes," i answered. :"take me with you," said the dog. Over the years the poems became more and more minimilist, sometimes consisting of single words, even single syllables, running down page after page, often in varying colors. Much of his output, while not outright spiritual, evoked religious thoughts. Many Western visitors to his tiny house in Patmos had their spirits recharged in the presence of his peaceful mien. William Maxwell even likened him to a saint. ³ "To the best of my knowledge," wrote Maxwell, "a saint is simply all the things that he is. If you placed him among the Old Testament figures above the south portal of Chartres, he wouldn¹t look odd." Mark Van Doren, one of his Columbia professors, wrote that ³The woe, I now believe, was that Lax could not state his bliss: his love of the world and all things, all persons in it.² One of his most acclaimed works was Circus of the Sun, a book of poems metaphorically comparing the circus to Creation. An excerpt was handed out to those attending Lax¹s funeral at St. Bonaventure University Sept. 29: :And in the beginning was love. Love made a sphere: :all things grew within it; the sphere then encompassed :beginnings and endings, beginning and end. Love :had a compass whose whirling dance traced out a :sphere of love in the void: in the center thereof :rose a fountain. In his later poetry, Lax concentrated on simplicity and on making the most out of the fewest components. This makes him one of the patron saints of literary minimalism. Some of his poems can go on for several pages using no more than four words and a punctuation mark. In some instances, Lax uses repetition of a few words either as a device for instilling a sense of serenity or to create a sense of surprise in the reader when a change in the pattern occurs. Despite the limited vocabulary of his poems, some create narratives, while others seem more like examples for use in meditative practice or even spiritual discipline. A good example of this abstract technique can be seen in the following untitled work, first published in New Poems (1960): :one bird :two birds :one bird :two birds :two birds :one bird :two birds :one bird :one bird :two birds :one bird :two birds :two birds :one bird :two birds :one bird :one :Jerusalem, from "Love had a Compass" :reading of lovely Jerusalem, :lovely, ruined Jerusalem. :we are brought to the port :where the boats in line are :and the high tower on the hill :and the prows starting again :into the mist. :for we must seek :by going down, :down into the city :for our song. :deep into the city :for our peace. :for it is there :that peace lies :folded :like a pool. :there we shall seek: :it is from there :she'll flower. :for lovely, ruined Jerusalem, :lovely, sad Jerusalem :lies furled :under the cities :of light. :for we are only :going down, :only descending :by this song :to where the cities :gleam in darkness, :or curled like roots :sit waiting :at the undiscovered pool. :what pressure :thrusts us as :as we descend? :pressure of :the city's singing, :pressure of :the song :she hath withheld. :hath long withheld. :for none :would hear :her. Recognition Lax's most famous book, Circus of the Sun, a meditation on creation, was heralded by the New York Times as "perhaps the greatest English language poem of this century." St. Bonaventure University, near Olean, houses the main Robert Lax archives. Publications Poetry *''The Circus of the Sun''. New York: Journeyman Books, 1959. *''Oedipus: 12 poems''. New York : Printed by the artist at the Hand Press, 1958. *''New Poems''. New York: Journeyman Books, 1962. *''3 or 4 Poems About the Sea''. New York: Journeyman Books, 1966. *''Three Poems'' (illustrated by Emil Antonucci). New York: Journeyman Books, 1969. *''Red Circle Blue Square''. New York: Journeyman, 1971. *''Nine Poems''. Gloucestershire, UK: Moschatel Press, 1983. *''13 Poems''. New York: Journeyman Books, 1974. *''10 Poems''. Fall River, MA: Patmos, 1981. *''The Way''. Lyndonville, VT: Furthermore Press, 1983. *''Said's''. Passumpic, VT: Furthermore Press, 1983. *''Light''. Belper, Derbyshire, UK: Stuart Mills, 1984. *''Some Short Notes of Robert Lax''. Passumpic, VT: Furthermore Press, 1985. *''New Poems, 1962-1985'' (edited by Heinz Gappmayr). London: Coracle Press / Aachen, Germany: Ottenhausen, 1986. *''Spark and Flame''. Frankfurt, Germany: Frankfurter Kunstverein, 1987. *''33 Poems'' (edited by Thomas Kellein). New York: New Directions, 1988. *''The Rooster Poems'' (edited by Judith Emery). Exeter, Devon, UK: Stride, 1991. *''Love Had a Compass: Journals and poetry'' (edited by James J. Uebbing). New York: Grove, 1996. *''A Thing That Is'' (edited by Paul J. Spaeth). Woodstock, NY: Overlook Press, 1997. *''36 poems'' (edited by John Beer). Westerly, RI: published by Ring Tarigh for the Literary Renaissance, 1997. *''Circus Days and Nights: Poems'' (edited by Paul J. Spaeth). Woodstock, NY: Overlook Press, 2000. *''Poems, 1962-1997'' (edited by John Beer). Seattle, OR: Wave Books, 2013. Collected editions *''On & by Robert Lax: Essay, poetry, drawings, bibliography / Aufsatz, Gedichte, Zeichnungen, Bibliographie''. Zurich, Switzerland: Pendo-Verlag, 1995. *''The ABC's of Robert Lax'' (edited by David Miller; Nicholas Zurbrugg; poetry, essays, interviews, & letters). Exeter, Devon, UK: Stride, 1999. Letters *''When Prophecy Still Had a Voice: The letters of Thomas Merton and Robert Lax''. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2001. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Robert Lax, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Nov. 4, 2014. See also *List of U.S. poets References * Sigrid Hauff: A Line in Three Circles. The Inner Biography of Robert Lax & A Comprehensive Catalog of His Works, BoD, Norderstedt, 2007, ISBN 978-3833484803 Notes External links ;Poems * "The Alley Violinist" *"Circus Days and Nights" *Robert Lax at The Wisdom Portal (3 poems) ;Books *Robert Lax at Amazon.com * ;About *Robert Lax, Enigmatic Hermit at The Hermitary *Robert Lax at The American Conservative *Thomas Merton and Robert Lax: A Friendship in Letters, Arthur W. Biddle, Thomas Merton Society. Category:1915 births Category:2000 deaths Category:American hermits Category:Columbia University alumni Category:American poets Category:People from Cattaraugus County, New York Category:Writers from New York Category:20th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets